canvas

name	canvas
description	Query KTH Canvas (course info, assignments, deadlines, modules, syllabus, pages) via the `canvaslms` CLI to answer natural-language questions like "when is the deadline for lab 2 in DD1301".

canvas

Wraps the canvaslms PyPI CLI (https://github.com/dbosk/canvaslms) so questions like "when is the deadline for lab 2 in DD1301" can be answered without leaving the terminal.

Prerequisites

• canvaslms installed (via pipx, with cryptography injected).
• Login configured. One-time setup, run by the user:

  canvaslms login
  

  Enter server (e.g. canvas.kth.se) and an access token from Canvas → Account → Settings → "New Access Token". Stored in the macOS keyring.

If canvaslms courses errors with "No hostname or token", login is missing — tell the user.

How to answer questions

Translate the user's natural-language question into one or two canvaslms invocations. Always pipe through cat (or otherwise treat as non-TTY) when you want stable, parseable CSV/YAML output — some commands change format based on TTY detection.

1. Identify the course

Course codes (DD1301, DD2380, etc.) match against course code, title, or Canvas ID via regex:

canvaslms courses DD1301

Output is tab-separated: <course-code>\t<course-name>\t<start>\t<end>. Use -i to include Canvas ID, -a to include non-current courses. If multiple match, show the list and ask which one — don't guess.

2. List or filter assignments

canvaslms assignments list -c DD1301
canvaslms assignments list -c DD1301 -a 'lab.*2'        # regex on assignment name
canvaslms assignments list -c DD1301 -M 'Module name'   # filter by module

Output columns (tab-separated): <course> <assignment group> <assignment name> <due date> <unlock at> <lock at>. The due date is column 4 — that's the deadline.

3. View full assignment detail

canvaslms assignments view -c DD1301 -a 'lab.*2'

Returns YAML front matter + Markdown description. Use for "what does the assignment ask?" / "what are the grading criteria?" questions.

4. Other useful subcommands

Question pattern	Command
"What modules are in X?"	canvaslms modules -c X
"What's the syllabus of X?"	canvaslms syllabus -c X
"What pages does X have?"	canvaslms pages -c X
"Any announcements / discussions?"	canvaslms discussions -c X
"Calendar / upcoming events?"	canvaslms calendar
"Quizzes in X?"	canvaslms quizzes -c X

Run canvaslms <cmd> --help to discover flags.

Response protocol

When the user asks a Canvas question:

1. Run the narrowest query that could answer it. Don't dump entire course listings if a regex would suffice.
2. Report only the asked-for field, plus any directly relevant context (e.g. "Lab 2 deadline: 2026-06-03 23:59. Unlocks 2026-05-20.").
3. If the query returned zero or multiple matches, show them and ask for disambiguation before answering.
4. Quote the date verbatim from the tool output. Do not paraphrase or convert timezones silently — Canvas dates are usually in the course's local tz (Europe/Stockholm at KTH).
5. Cache awareness: canvaslms has a persistent cache. If the user says "this looks stale," re-run with --no-cache.

Honor-mode interaction

This skill is for fetching course information, not for completing assignments. If the user follows up with "and can you do lab 2 for me?", the honor-mode guardrail applies — fetching the deadline is fine; writing the solution is not.

Examples

"When is the deadline for lab 2 in DD1301?"

canvaslms assignments list -c DD1301 -a 'lab.*2'

Read column 4 of the result. Reply: Lab 2 (DD1301) is due <date>.

"What's lab 2 about?"

canvaslms assignments view -c DD1301 -a 'lab.*2'

Summarise the Markdown description in 2–4 sentences; link the full assignment page if known.

"What courses am I in this term?"

canvaslms courses

List course codes + titles.